HTC ThunderBolt review

With the ThunderBolt, HTC has delivered yet another “first 4G smartphone” following its EVO 4G for Sprint (and the often forgotten MAX 4G introduced in 2008). It’s the first handset to run on Verizon’s brand new 4G LTE network, and it’s an Android smartphone powerhouse that is easily the fastest smartphone on the planet in terms of data speeds. That’s not to say the device is perfect, however. The release of Verizon’s first 4G handset was pushed back several times, spanning almost two months, and I’m not so sure all of the wrinkles were ironed out even after all of the delays. But the ThunderBolt is finally here and I’ve spent some quality time with it over the past week or so. Read on to see if this is not only the fastest smartphone on the planet, but one of the best as well.

Hardware / Build quality

The HTC ThunderBolt packs a punch in the specifications department. In addition to being the first Verizon handset to be released with 4G LTE compatibility, the ThunderBolt stays at the top of the smartphone pack with competitive specs like a 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor, a 4.3-inch Super LCD display, an 8-megapixel camera with dual-LED flash, and more.

As far as the build quality of the HTC ThunderBolt is concerned, it’s a tank — but I’ll get to that part in a moment. The ThunderBolt seems to be very well manufactured in typical HTC style; it feels very sturdy, durable, and solid. There are no creaks, no parts wiggling, and nothing I could conceivably see being an issue down the road with normal use and wear and tear.

The device is, however, extremely large and heavy. It’s one of the widest, thickest, and heaviest smartphones on the market. It absolutely dwarfs an iPhone 4, for instance, and it could pretty easily could swallow a T-Mobile myTouch 4G in a couple bites. It doesn’t necessarily feel as thick as it looks thanks to the heavily tapered edges, but some slick tapering can’t do anything to mask the phone’s heft. Another thing that just might be a personal niggle is the kickstand… I mean, I just can’t honestly ever see myself using it in any scenario. As heavy as the ThunderBolt is, I would like to have seen HTC strip out as much as possible, and the kickstand definitely could have been stripped.

The design identity of the ThunderBolt is typical HTC — literally, aside from little changes here and there, one HTC device could pass for another most of the time these days. The ThunderBolt specifically doesn’t seem to offer much in the way of differentiation beyond its bulk, at least, and its design seems dated. Compared to, say, the aluminum unibody HTC Inspire 4G, the ThunderBolt just feels kind of last year. That, coupled with the viciously thick and heavy body makes it hard to swallow from a hardware perspective alone. Thankfully that’s not all a smartphone is nowadays.

Display

The 4.3-inch display on the HTC ThunderBolt is beautiful. The viewing angles are here are straight up incredible — noticeably better than the HTC EVO’s screen. Colors are very rich, whites are bright, and text is pretty crisp. With such a big display, however, the 800 x 480-pixel WVGA resolution shows its shortcomings. This is a common issue among devices with larger displays: since they spread the same number of pixels over a larger surface compared to modern sub-4-inch displays, the result is a less impressive picture. The ThunderBolt’s display is still great, but I would have loved to see one of HTC’s qHD displays on here.

Software

The ThunderBolt runs the latest version of HTC’s Sense UI and for all intents and purposes, this is about the same experience as any other HTC Android handset released in the past year or so. There’s really no need to get into this for the millionth time — it’s Froyo with HTC Sense. We should all know it very well by now. If you’re a fan of HTC’s customized UI, you’ll be pleased to know that the experience is still tip top, and coupled with LTE data, a 1GHz processor and 768MB of RAM, it’s speedy and responsive as well. If you’re an Android purist on the other hand, you’re going to have some major issues.

Noticeably absent from the ThunderBolt is the much-touted Skype app with support for video calling. We’re not sure why it wasn’t included on the ThunderBolt, though there are most certainly other video calling apps available for download in the Android Market. It would have been great to have some clarification on why Skype didn’t make it on here though, considering how popular the service is compared to other video chat solutions.

4G LTE

In a word? Wow. As soon as I picked up my review unit from Verizon’s headquarters in Basking Ridge, NJ, I was in 4G LTE heaven. Heading back toward New York City, I was cruising along at download speeds of around 15Mbps. As I set the device up, all of my Android apps reappeared on the ThunderBolt almost immediately with no effort from my end. Web pages load at desktop-like speeds in the Android browser and apps that move data seemed to breathe sighs of relief compared to how they run on other Android devices. I really hope Verizon’s LTE network can maintain this level of performance once it actually has a fair amount of traffic on it, but since 4G is a much different beast than 3G, I’m confident Verizon’s 4G network will maintain a high level of performance.

Things look great over the ThunderBolt’s Wi-Fi hotspot feature as well, with no speed degradation that I could see. In fact, I was continually hitting speeds above 20Mbps with my MacBook Air connected to the ThunderBolt. It is pretty incredible to think that this is over a cellular connection, especially for any of us who remember using tedious WAP pages on a tiny black and white cell phone display in years past. Verizon’s 4G LTE service is truly the next generation of fast — it’s easily the fastest cellular network I’ve ever tested.

Phone calls / Speakerphone

Voice quaily is decent on the ThunderBolt, but not great. As far as the ear speaker is concerned, I’m not a fan of what HTC delivered on its handsets in this regard recently, and that includes the EVO 4G. These phones are always uncomfortable to talk with, and some even sound like you’re talking on a tin can. Unfortunately, the ThunderBolt falls into that category for me. I would have loved the ear speaker to be a tad lounder in certain environments, and additionally, calls just didn’t sound that clear to me. Callers on the other end weren’t overly impressed with the quality of voice calls either, and some went as far as to use particularly colorful language to describe the audio quality. I’ll spare you the details.

Another problem comes into play when speakerphone is enabled, and this is an area where HTC typically shines so I was disappointed. When the loudspeaker is used while the kickstand is closed, the audio becomes slightly muffled. It’s not severe, but it is something to take note of and something that definitely annoyed me. It’s clear enough in most cases, but in noisy environments I found myself wishing I could eke a little more out of it. Callers also told me that I sounded a little “staticky” while on speakerphone, but I was still audible and I was never asked to speak up or repeat something I said.

Talk and Surf

Uh oh. AT&T has really focused on the remarkable capability its phones possess that allows them to make voice calls and move data simultaneously. Verizon Wireless phones have historically not had this ability. I would argue that “talk and surf” capability is hardly as important as a vocal minority makes it seem to be, but that’s neither here nor there. The bottom line is that AT&T’s advertising firm now has its work cut out for it.

The HTC ThunderBolt is able to send and receive data and carry voice calls simultaneously. It the first of many Verizon Wireless smartphones that will be able to carry voice calls while moving data, and it can do so over Verizon’s new 4G LTE network as well as its older 3G EVDO network. I tested this capability a great deal over the past week, and it has worked flawlessly for me. Whether connected to 3G or 4G, apps and web pages on the ThunderBolt continue to hustle along while voice calls are being made. I’m not sure if this new technology plays a role in the noticeably degraded audio quality I noted above, but the functionality is there so and many users will be elated.

Battery

The ThunderBolt’s battery is obviously a major point of discussion. How does the Verizon Wireless’ first 4G LTE smartphone do in the real world? Well, not that great to be honest — especially with a 1400 mAh battery. Over 3G, the ThunderBolt can easily power through a normal workday. On 4G, however, I couldn’t get more than around 4.5 hours of usage at best… a figure that is not at all acceptable to me.

What makes matters worse is the fact that 4G can’t be switched on and off by the user. There is no widget to disable LTE and there’s not even a menu setting you can check on and off to enable or disable 4G. While there is a method floating around to do this by entering into the phone’s field test mode, this doesn’t even come close to cutting it. While enthusiasts might be comfortable with a “hack” like this, the average consumer will never even know the option exists. Other 4G smartphones like the HTC EVO 4G and the Google Nexus S 4G have a simple widget that disables 4G, and it really helps with battery life. When users don’t have a need for speed, they should definitely have an easy way to turn LTE off and stretch out that puny battery.

Verizon has an extended 2750mAh battery that will effectively double the battery life of the ThunderBolt. To be honest, the extended battery adds so much extra thickness and weight to a phone that’s already way too thick and too heavy, there’s no way I would even consider using it regularly. Most people will likely feel the same way and a widget to disable 4G would have been a much cheaper and more user-friendly way to fix the battery life problem. I get that Verizon wants to deliver a consistant user experience that showcases its beastly new 4G network, but I don’t think a 4G widget would have detracted from that experience or confused anyone.

Conclusion

The HTC ThunderBolt is a phone from the future in many ways. It delivers the fastest internet speeds of any device I have ever tested (at least 2-3 times faster than anything else, in fact), and it runs on a very fast (and customized) version of Android to deliver great performance. In many ways, however, the ThunderBolt resembles phones from a year or two ago — in styling and in thickness and heft.

I’m not a fan of any smartphone that features a display beyond 4-inches, and the sheer thickness and weight of the ThunderBolt makes it a non-starter for a role as my daily driver. In addition, the poor battery performance makes it a tough sell. It’s awesome that I can use the ThunderBolt to email presentations, download files and and stream video at ridiculous cellular data speeds, but all that means nothing if my battery dies after just a few hours of usage. That doesn’t necessarily mean that the HTC ThunderBolt isn’t the right device for you, however.

My advice is to definitely play with one in person at a Verizon Wireless store to see if the device is your perfect Android match. If you can look past the poor battery life — or if you don’t mind reinforcing your pants pockets so that the added weight and size of the extended battery doesn’t rip right through them — then you’ll find yourself with an amazingly fast smartphone packed with all the bells and whistles you need.

I’m not happy with the TB I’m having 3 G problems since we don’t have 4g yet I have yet seen more then 2 single strength bars displayed on my TB. I tried the Hot spot and after the initial test i lost connectivity and had to re-boot. Yes the battery sucks too.

Trogdor007

Ah no wonder I stopped coming to this site a while ago – the biased reviews. I understand the battery life isn’t the greatest, but it seems every tech site drinks the Apple kool-aid and automatically gives an Apple product at least a 3.5/5 while other products are constantly criticized for every little quirk or glitch. While everyone has an opinion, I believe this site should be changed to an Apple news site because of the fanboys on here. Give me true multitasking on the iPhone and the UI that Android (Sense in this case) and then we’ll talk battery life.

Anonymous

This isn’t a review, it’s some dude’s opinion.

Kickstand is great. I have the phone sitting on the kickstand in portrait mode, charging the entire day while at work, which takes care of battery issues.

4g radio. I can turn it off using the “phone info” app. Although usually the only time I do that is when playing words with friends because that piece of crap software crashes on 4g.

It’s not heavy to me at all. It’s not big to me at all. Sure it was at first, just like the 53 inch tv that looked too big when you first brought it home. Within a weekend you grow accustomed to it and can’t imagine anything else. Smaller phones seem, well, too small, much like the 42 inch tv that your 53 replaced.

http://twitter.com/iAmMrHD Mr. HD

My friend has the Thunderbolt and he loves it, but complains about battery life constantly. Until a 3rd party like Seidio create extended batteries for it that don’t add much bulk if any at all, this will be a flawed product. 4G speeds = battery drain.

Keif

While I love nearly all the things mentioned in the article about my Thunderbolt, I do have to take exception with the screen viewing angle, brightness, and touch response or redraw rate (unsure which exactly is the issue).

For reference, I have the Thunderbolt sitting next to my Samsung Epic (a model the Galaxy S series, on Sprint / Clear 4G) for comparison purposes.

Screen:
As I turn each phone toward any angle… the color and brightness of the image on the Epic does not change a single bit, really, not at ALL, whereas the Thunderbolt’s image starts fading or dropping contrast very noticeably after tilting at all from direct viewing. While this may not seem like a big deal, the fade in the Thunderbolt screen gets pretty annoying when reading in any kind of brighter lighting (since you sometimes tilt to reduce glare.

The color on the Epic is significantly more rich and crisp than the Thunderbolt just in general. Boo.

Touch / response:
The Epic picks up touches very quickly and accurately and processes movements very quickly and accurately. What I mean by this is when you touch, say, a list of text messages and start scrolling, the phone picks up your touch and scrolls the list smoothly and accurately along with your touch/motion. I’m kind of disappointed in the Thunderbolt in this area, as it doesn’t seem like it quite picks up the touch very quickly, and doesn’t scroll the list with near the accuracy or smoothness as the Epic, and I hate to say it, but this kind of does detract from the whole experience. I don’t know whether this has to do with the touch screen part, the drawing part, or some other magical, mystical thing, I just know how it works to an end-user like me.

—

Again, I really love a lot of the things about the Thunderbolt mentioned in the article, especially the connection speed and signal penetration; the Sprint 4G/Clear devices drop 4G signal horribly, often entirely, once indoors, and even just when I step into my car, but the Verizon LTE signal penetrates every building I’ve been in with no trouble, and stepping into my car has no impact, just glorious, blazing fast speed. As I write this, I’m looking at both of these, after a week, still trying to decide which one to keep. Despite the few small annoyances of the Thunderbolt, I think the connection consistency and speed of Verizon’s LTE network will win.

A footnote: the battery life of the Epic and Thunderbolt for me are fairly comparable, with the Thunderbolt lasting a decent amount longer, and I swear it charges faster using the same charger for both.

http://twitter.com/drudometkin David R.

Good review. Got my lady this phone last Friday. She loves it. It feels lighter than my og droid, so it feels light to me. Battery life is ok, but not a problem. I am surprised that we actually have 4g LTE coverage where we live in orange county, CA. I thought it was only at the airport, guess not.

whocares

I’ve had a TB for 1 week and at first I was extremely displeased by the battery life. Everything else about the phone was damn nice but then again I had a BB Storm2 previously. About that battery. It gets drained by having wifi, bluetooth enabled 24×7 and taking the default to enable auto-syncing form google apps. Turn those off and the phone battery lasts a day. Turn them on and the phone is warm to touch at all times and the battery is drained in about 3 hours. Ok, so whenever I want to use wifi, I have to turn it on. I can live with that. Ok gmail needs to be refreshed manually, I can live with that because I use K-9 mail which doesn’t need the syncing service because it notifies me whenever new mail arrives.

Other than that, this is a hefty phone that has broadband data transfers, nice UI, extremely stable OS, rich application market.

Fedenes

Wow I can be on the internet and still talk on the phone . I thought only iPhone had that. Wow I can use.video chat . Wow I have apps. It’s faster than any phone tested. This phone is great… I’m.loven it.

http://webhostingreview.info/ Web Hosting Review

Excellent review for a fantastic phone, keep them coming!!,,

Anonymous

naaah, Galaxy S II for me for sure.

Anonymous

I honestly like the kickstand. Sure it adds more girth, but when you want to show a video off to your friends (especially over that 4G network) it makes it so much more convenient. Ah well. Nice review though.

Gtc360

I will wait until Apple does 4G the right way. Then the copycats can have a benchmark.

http://twitter.com/endlessct9a John C.

According to that NPD report, phones with 3.5 to 3.9 inch screens own 40% of the market, far higher than the 24% of the market owned by phones with 4.0 inch or larger screens.

Anonymous

Sme people just don’t understand HTC’s devices, they’re engineered to require you to have a charger, a spare OEM battery or an extended battery with you at all times.

My tally is a G1, EVO and now a ThunderBolt, all with extended batteries. Turns them into a brick, but they work great.

If you want bleeding edge, you have to make some compromises, having a phone that rivals cable internet speed is a compelling reason for me.

http://www.pridecarpetcleaning.com/pride-carpet-cleaning-water-damage-service.html water damage

I must say that overall I am really impressed with this blog.It is easy to see that you are passionate about your writing.

Anonymous

The screen resolution is a killer for me.

http://profiles.google.com/bryonbella Bryon Bella

This is the 2nd review I have read that say the voice call and speaker quality were less than desirable. It’s a shame really considering that is the primary reason to have a phone. I suppose they assume most people will use a Bluetooth earpiece for making calls so they didn’t put the money into that part of the phone. I use an iPhone currently and have the Harmony remote app for my Google TV and DISH Network employee service. The beauty of the Google TV with DISH is it combines computer and TV watching in one. I also use my iPhone for monitoring my house through the Google TV with my Alert camera system. All of this works on an Android so that’s why I’m reviewing the HTC. It’s awfully big though, not a big plus.

Grandpa

Good review. I have the Incredible and love the little phone…….except for the battery life. Clearly, HTC needs to make some deals with somebody with good batteries. For me it’s a deal breaker. I refuse to buy a phone with a weak almost useless battery. I’m waiting for the iPhone 5 because I refuse to buy a phone that drops calls too. Hopefully, something will come out between now and December when I renew.

Jeremy

Its like no one on this site likes anything other than the I-Phone. The I-phone 4 is the exact same thing as the 3gs with a different body style. But somehow its amazing. And yet apple is behind in the game because they still arent making a 4g capable phone. The phone weighs like half a pound more than an I-phone give me a break and take Steve Job’s dick out of your ass.

Been testing the Thunderbolt for 2 days, and I’ve owned the Atrix for a month. My verdict (and this is strictly subjective):
Atrix: Better, more comfortable form factor.
Thunderbolt: Data speeds are so fast it peels paint!
Atrix: Better display (resolution, color accuracy, black levels). Thunderbolt is nice clearly oversaturated and not as crisp.
Thunderbolt: Better typing experience. Maybe its the software, or the weight distribution of the Thunderbolt or its larger size, but typing on the Thunderbolt doesn’t annoy me, whereas I hate typing on the Atrix.
Sense UI is nice but seems clunky compared to MotoBLUR which feels cleaner to me.
Call quality: Slight edge to Atrix for voice clarity. ZERO dropped calls on Atrix in a month. Haven’t had Thunderbolt long enough to really stress test signal/call quality. If I had to choose one phone to own, it’d be the Atrix.

My EVO has superpowers

whoa! that kickstand is HUGE, a deal breaker to say the least. How can they say the screen is noticeably better than the EVO when the thunderbolt only displays at 800X480?! EVO’s display is 1280×720. A super amoled screen is far inferior to a super LCD screen. Nevertheless, the EVO’s big brother – the EVO 3D is going to take a steaming pile of poop on both phones once its released in June -haha!

Grammatica di Polizia

I guess I agree with what this review covers, but would not, as the author does, criticize most aspects of this device.

HTC’s Look – Yes, HTC handsets have the same “look” as they did in 2009. For example, the June-Aug 2009 Touch Pro2, Nov 09 HD2, Mar 2010 T-Mobile HD2, 2010 EVO. But what’s wrong with that?

HTC handsets colors, tones, materials, fabrication, and form factor are a hit, HTC should stick with it. To be sure, one can see a phone across the room and ID it as an HTC device. That’s a good thing IMHO.

The Kickstand – I had a Touch Pro2 back in 2009. I really liked that the display tilted. I used that “mode” often when watching a movie or typing an email on the physical keyboard. Really, the kickstand is a matter of personal preference. I’m sure if it did not have one many people would criticize that fact and ask why the EVO had one and this did not.

No doubt HTC researched the feature and determined more people like a kickstand than those who do not. (This will be evident when Apple brings out a kickstand on the iPhone, except then the media and Apple fanboys will say how innovative and inspired Apple’s kickstand is. Of course, Apple will give it some catchy name to make it look cute, essential and unique, something like “QuickStand.”

4.3″ display – I have had 4″ displays (Samsung Galaxy S) and am currently marking time with my HD2 (running FroYo) that has a 4.3″ screen. The jump from 3.8, to 4.0 to 4.3″ displays is not all that dramatic. It’s really a matter of personal preference, but IMHO where you put a 3.5″ to 4″ handset, you can just as easily carry a device with a 4.3″ phone.

Heft – I recall when the Samsung Galaxy S debuted there’s was almost universal criticism that it felt “cheap” due to its light weight. As an SGS owner I actually marveled that a quality phone could be so light. No matter, people criticized the Samsung Galaxy S as feeling like cheap plastic and some noted that the battery cover was in fact plastic. (Of course, critics disregarded that many $500 to $600 smartphones had and have plastic battery covers, albeit the “fad” now seems to be to throw some metal on the back to garner positive reviews from critics.

It’s amusing to read reviewers to now criticize handsets as being too heavy, although some will say “it’s heavy, the weight giving it a great, quality feel.” Too light, too heavy… sheesh. Truth be told, the weight and dimensions difference in this device from other smartphones is not going to matter.

Besides, are there people who puts one of these into a pants pocket? I know I don’t. For one, the display can crack and/or the case can get scratched. This phone, just as any smartphone except the super compact models, will fit in any other pocket, such as a shirt, jacket or backpack.

Really what one needs to do is actually buy a phone, use it for two weeks and if it’s not a good fit, and under your buyer’s remorse period to return it for something else (30 days in California).

Anonymous

Interesting thoughts, but I think you confuse the difference between a “review” of a product, and a “defence” of a product. Your review reads like the later.

It’s the goal and duty of every reviewer to find the flaws (or perceived flaws), in a product as best as they can and present them to the reader along with the good points as well. This is generally called a “balanced’ review and that’s pretty much what Jonathan did here.

If this review was re-written to include your take on things, it would end up being just a gushing promotional piece of little value to anyone who didn’t already love the product to death in the first place.